Koch Industries Inc. has restructured investment operations to better help it target ideas, businesses, products and leaders that it believes are good fits for its ever-expanding portfolio.
While Koch has always been a major player in investment circles, the company late last year rolled six internal investment arms under a new division called Koch Investments Group.
Quietly launched last year, the division is led by Steve Feilmeier, who had previously served as Koch’s CFO.
Under the Koch Investments umbrella, the company has aligned the divisions of Koch Disruptive Technologies, Koch Strategic Platforms, Koch Investment Management, Koch Equity Development, Koch Asset Management and Koch Real Estate.
“Koch Investments combined our investment teams and added a new strategic platforms team, which is focused on creating options for investment in industries, assets and technologies where we can create virtuous cycles of mutual benefit,” says company spokesperson David Dziok. “This includes more proactive investing where disruptive trends are accelerating and we can add value through our diverse knowledge and capabilities combined with a willingness to experiment and innovate.”
Some of those entities have been making investment headlines before the formation of Koch Investments, like the Chase Koch-led Koch Disruptive Technologies. Others, like Koch Strategic Platforms, are newer players.
David Park, who leads KSP following its launch last fall, says to think of the units rolled under Koch Investments like the Olympic Rings.
While each has their own domain, he says, they also each have a point where they overlap and connect. All are working to the same ultimate goal: To bring mutually beneficial ideas, businesses and leaders into the fold at Koch.
“We’re looking at those target companies that can help us transform Koch Industries,” Park says of KSP, which plans to invest up to $3 billion by the end of the year.
While that includes an unspecified amount to recently back electric vehicle charging station company EVBox, another of the investment units — Koch Real Estate — made headlines last month by partnering to buy into a previously stalled hotel and casino resort project in Las Vegas.
From the future of transportation to entertainment on the Vegas strip, those early 2021 projects alone underscore how far and wide Koch is looking to invest.
That’s an offshoot, CEO Charles Koch told the WBJ in December, of what has been a set of business philosophies geared toward turning everyone in the entire company loose to find new ideas and opportunities.
“When I go into one of our business meetings now and I hear all the new things we’re doing and new ways to improve … I come out of those meetings so pumped up and excited on how the application of these principles is so powerful,” he said.
